Appetite of a Vampire [Vampire Love and Lust 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Dani April

  “But you are a human, too,” he told her.

  “I haven’t been a human in fifty years!” she shouted at him. She felt like she was going to scream. Why couldn’t she get through to them? “I can’t go out into the sunlight. I can’t eat or drink like humans. I have to drink blood to stay alive, and I don’t age. We have the same virus running through our veins. Please believe me—I am just like you.”

  “No. You are not.” Now the second vampire stepped forward and spoke for the first time. “And you are going to die!”

  “Let’s get out of here before those guys find a way to get up here to us.” Obviously the vampires in this house had no sympathy for her and would be no help and only seemed intent on killing the two of them. She tugged on Barry’s hand and pulled him forward behind her.

  The vampires in the ballroom below them were different in appearance than the ones sleeping in the basement had been. They had a more charismatic, old-world presence to them, and Marty could tell they were much older. The first one raised his arms in the air and hovered off the floor. In the blink of an eye, he had leaped over the railing and was standing directly in front of them. His fangs were out and his eyes on fire.

  Marty turned around and took Barry back in the opposite direction. The second vampire came off the ballroom floor and jumped over the railing, blocking their exit in his direction. Now they were trapped in the hallway with an ancient vampire coming at them from both ends. She wouldn’t be able to fight these two like she had the ones in the basement. They were old and much stronger than she was.

  Looking down over the railing, Marty briefly considered trying to jump down the ten feet to the marble floor below. However, with Barry bleeding to death in her arms that would not be a good option, and she quickly gave it up. Behind the railing was a closed door. Though dubious, it offered the only escape route, and she took it. Fortunately this door was kept unlocked, and she was able to open it and get Barry safely inside before the encroaching vampires reached them. Slamming the door shut behind her, she knew it would just be a few seconds before the vampires outside were barging through, and once they did, there would be no holding them back.

  “Please just leave us alone!” she screamed out at them, tears streaming her face. “We’ll leave and won’t ever tell anyone what we saw in here. My boyfriend is dying. I’ve got to get him to a hospital. Please let us go!”

  She took Barry in her arms and backed away from the door. That’s when she turned around and saw they were not alone in the room.

  “Welcome to my home, Marty. I’ve been expecting you.”

  The evil, female vampire, who she had met that night in the limo months before, back in the summer, was standing before her. She had a wicked smile on her face, and fangs were growing out of her mouth.

  Just then the vampires out in the hall pushed their way inside. Marty had no time to react. One of them grabbed ahold of Barry and took him from her arms. The other pushed Marty down to the carpeting on her knees, and she fell before the evil female who stood above her and laughed. Marty knew it was all over now. There would be no escape for her and Barry. All was lost.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Don’t harm them,” the female vampire commanded, and the males backed off. She was in charge here.

  Marty looked up at her from her position on the floor and wondered what new horrors this evil witch had in store for them. She looked across at Barry. He was lying flat on his back on the carpeting, and his breathing had become shallow, blood foaming from his mouth. He would not last much longer without help.

  “You’re not needed here anymore,” the female told the two vampire males. “You may leave us. I’ll call you when I want you.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” They left the room, closing the door behind them and shutting Marty and Barry alone in the room with the female.

  She reached down and extended a hand to Marty, helping her back to her feet. “My name is Nerfeti Lustbader.” She introduced herself for the first time and regarded Marty carefully. “Do you not remember what I told you the last time we met, my dear?” she asked.

  “You told me not to look for my maker.”

  “A pity you wouldn’t take my advice.” Nerfeti went over to Barry and wiped some blood off his skin with a finger. She stuck the finger in her mouth and sucked the blood. “He tastes wonderful. I see why you’re with him.” Then she returned to Marty. “He’s dying you know, my dear. Your ill-fated quest to find your past has cost this man his future.”

  Tears ran down Marty’s face, and she fell down to Barry’s side to pick him back up in her arms. “Get away from him, you old bitch! I’ll get him to a hospital. He’ll be all right.”

  Nerfeti walked around a large desk that dominated the center of the room they had stumbled into, but she never once took her eyes off Marty. “Now you’re going to get all the answers about your past because I’m going to give them to you, but you’re not going to like any of them.”

  “I just want to know how all of this happened to me. I was a human with a life. Then all of a sudden I lost everything. I have a right to know why I’m like this now. If you know the answer then please tell me.”

  “I know everything. I have always been there watching you.”

  “Tell me who my maker is?”

  “You don’t have a maker, Marty.”

  “What?” Marty took a step back. Nothing was going right, and nothing made sense. “That’s impossible! Every vampire has to have a maker, otherwise how would they become a vampire?”

  Nerfeti pointed in the direction of the other vampires outside the room. “I’m sorry about them. I didn’t want them to attack you. It was never my intention to bring harm to you or your men.”

  “Why would they try and kill us like that? Are they so evil they kill their own kind?”

  Nerfeti threw her head back and laughed. “This is a house of the undead, my dear. Humans aren’t allowed. If one enters uninvited, they will be killed.”

  Marty realized what Nerfeti was telling her. She said she had no maker, and these vampires killed humans. They had tried to kill both her and Barry. “That’s insane,” she told her. “They think I’m a human, and that’s why they tried to kill me.”

  “Very good, Marty. You’re catching on.”

  “But I’m not a human being. I’m a vampire just like they are.”

  “It would appear so, but unfortunately it’s not true.” Nerfeti took a seat behind her desk. All the time, her cold eyes continued to inspect every move Marty was making.

  Marty was only able to half listen to what Nerfeti told her because she was busy wiping blood from Barry’s wound and trying to feel out how much damage had been done. As she held him in her arms, she realized he had lost consciousness, and she could barely detect any more breathing. She shouldn’t be wasting time talking with Nerfeti, but somehow the female vampire had her paralyzed with fear.

  “You’re not a real vampire, Marty,” Nerfeti told her. “You are one of a kind. There is no one else in the world quite like you. I’m afraid the truth is you will never quite fit in anywhere you go. And that’s really what the search for your maker was, wasn’t it? A journey to try and belong somewhere. Unfortunately, only now at the end do you realize it was all for nothing. That’s the reason I sought you out in the summer and told you to give up. I have never been your enemy, Marty. I have only wanted to help you.”

  Nerfeti’s words were torturing Marty, and she was also desperate because now she knew there was a very real chance Barry was going to die, and she knew he might already be beyond the help of medical care. She just sat on the floor with him cradled in her arms and shivered from the fear.

  “Why is this happening to me? If I am not a real vampire like you say, then why does the sunlight burn me? Why does food nauseate me? Why do I crave blood and never grow old? Those are some pretty goddamn good symptoms of vampirism!”

  Nerfeti smiled benevolently down to Marty. “Your father never told you much when you
were growing up, did he?”

  “My father?” Marty gasped, not liking the direction the conversation was heading. “He was a good man. He had nothing to do with any of this. He died before I even became a vampire.”

  Nerfeti got up from behind her desk and came back to Marty. Her eyes were still searching her. Marty could read a mix of emotions inside the female vampire. “You look like your father. He was a very handsome man.”

  Marty couldn’t take this anymore. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she screamed. “Just tell me, you evil, old witch!”

  Nerfeti kneeled down to Marty on the floor. She reached out to caress her face. “Your father never told you about your mother, did he?”

  “My mother died giving birth to me.”

  “No, Marty… I am your mother.”

  Marty shrank back away from her, away from the dying form of Barry, and away from life itself. “That can’t be!” She choked on her tears. “How is that possible?”

  With the speed of a vampire, Nerfeti was right at her side again. “I am three thousand years old, Marty. I have loved many men and been loved by them. But your father was special. I am afraid I loved him far more than he loved me. It is a very rare thing for a vampire to conceive and even rarer to carry the child full-term. I begged your father to let me turn him so that we could live for eternity together. I think he would have done so, too, if it had not been for you. When he found out I was going to have you, he wanted to stay human so he could raise you. We had no way of knowing if perhaps you might stay human for your entire life. But I warned him that after you reached a certain age, you would likely turn on your own.”

  “You mean my father knew all along?” Marty didn’t want to hear any of this and wanted to get up and run and never stop running. This scene was worse than her most terrible nightmare.

  “Your father was a good, human man who fell in love with a female vampire. He suffered from anemia during those few years we were together because I would bite him all the time. I am many things, but I could never have been a good mother. So I gave you to him as soon as you were born, and I left. I never saw him again. He thought there was a chance you might not ever turn, and so, to protect you, he never told you about me. But as all weak, mortal humans eventually do, he died. And you turned into a vampire soon after he died, not because another vampire had made you, but because you were born as half human and half vampire. You are really neither, just a creature in-between, Marty.”

  “Then I was lost all along. There was never a chance for me…”

  “I’m afraid so. Sorry I couldn’t have been a better mother, but when you’ve lived as long as I have, children can be a bit tiresome.”

  At that moment Marty wanted nothing more than just to die. Her whole life had been a lie, and she had spent all of these years fighting a losing battle and believing things that could never be. She crawled over to where Barry lay dying and lay down on top of him, bitter sobs racking her body.

  “You’re right,” she told Nerfeti. “I wish I had never found out.”

  “I told you, my dear.”

  Marty covered up her face in her hands and cried.

  * * * *

  Barry opened his eyes. Marty propped his head up on her knees and tried to wipe the blood off his face, but oh God, there was so much more of it now.

  “I guess I forgot to duck when that big guy hit me.” His voice was weak and hoarse.

  “You’re going to be all right, honey,” Marty lied to him. “I’m going to get you to a hospital, and you’re going to be just fine. Please just hang in there for me.”

  “Sorry I’ve kind of been out of it.” He reached out for her, and she brought her face down close to his. “Did we win? Did you find out the truth?”

  “Yes, Barry, I know everything now. I got what I came here for. We’re not in anymore danger now.”

  “I’m cold, Marty.”

  She looked over at Nerfeti, who had gone to sit behind her desk again. The vampire woman was going through some papers and ignoring the dying man on the floor of her office. “Call an ambulance for him!” Marty shouted at her.

  Nerfeti just shook her head. “An ambulance wouldn’t do him any good now.”

  Barry tried to move in Marty’s arms, and a spasm of pain took him, and he spit up more blood. “I’m sorry I let you down, Marty.”

  “Oh God no, you didn’t let me down, honey. You have never let me down.”

  “Funny, isn’t it? I survived two years in Afghanistan, and then they get me on Nob Hill. Life can be real strange sometimes, you know.”

  “Goddamn it, Barry, I told you bad things always happen to you when you’re around me.”

  “No they don’t…you’re the best thing that ever happened to me, Marty…”

  She kissed him on his lips. He felt cold to her touch. “I’m in love with you, Barry. I’m sorry I was too big of a coward to tell you that until now. I think I’ve loved you from the first time you caught me stealing blood at the hospital.”

  “I’m happy you have the other men to love you now, Marty. They’re good men…let them love you for me…”

  His body went through a spasm again, and he closed his eyes. “No, Barry!” Marty shook him in her arms. “Don’t do this to me. Don’t leave me.”

  But he was already unconscious. His head fell back to the floor, and his body went lifeless. Marty set him back down and looked over to Nerfeti behind her desk. She wiped away her tears and got up from the floor and went to Nerfeti.

  “You can help him,” Marty pleaded.

  “I am very powerful, but not even I can save that man’s life now. I’m sorry.”

  Marty went around her desk and stood before her. “That’s not what I meant. You are a vampire,” Marty reminded her.

  Nerfeti caught her meaning but only shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, my dear. We have protocol to follow. It just wouldn’t work. Anyway, I’m not the one who loves him.”

  “Then tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

  Again, Nerfeti was shaking her head. “You are not a full vampire. Even if you knew what you were doing, it might not happen for you.”

  “At least let me try.” Marty kneeled down in front of Nerfeti. “I love that man. I am not going to lose him.”

  “Marty, there are rules to be followed when a vampire turns a human being. It is not something to be taken lightly. I think he’s already gone. Once they die, nothing will bring them back.”

  Marty gripped Nerfeti, picking up her hands in her own and forcing her to look down at her. She realized she had never touched her before. “Mother,” she cried to her. “I have never asked you for anything in my entire life. You have never been there for me, and you don’t even know me, but I believe you loved my father, and that’s how I feel about that man over there. He means everything to me. I am begging you as your daughter to please show me how to save him.”

  Nerfeti thought for a long moment. She looked back and forth between Marty and Barry. She seemed to be reaching some decision in her mind. Then she reached over to her desk and brought out a long, wicked-looking knife. She turned Marty’s wrists around painfully and slashed first one and then the other with the sharp point of the knife, cutting so deeply that the same wound would have surely killed Marty had she been a human being. After a brief moment of pain, Marty felt her blood begin to freely flow out of her wrists. Nerfeti handed the knife over to Marty. Her hands were going numb from blood loss, and she could barely hold onto it.

  “Go to him,” Nerfeti commanded her. “He needs your blood. He’ll need as much as you can give him without killing yourself in the bargain.”

  Marty stumbled back across the room to Barry. When she bent to him, she was terrified that he was already dead. She took his head back up in her arms and tilted him forward. She held her bleeding wrist up to his mouth and let her blood wet his lips. He slowly opened up for her, and she held her wrist over him, and her blood began to pour down his throat. He sta
rted coughing and opened his eyes, but Marty could see he was still dying and more was needed.

  “Barry, can you hear me?” she coaxed him. “Come back to me.”

  “Marty, I…”

  She hushed him. “Don’t talk.” Bracing herself, she brought the knife down across her throat and opened her jugular vein. “You’re not going to die, Barry. I won’t let you. You are going to live. Now drink.” She brought him forward and allowed him to drink from the open wound on her neck.

  After it was over, she held him for a long time in her arms. Time had no meaning to her, and she closed her eyes and cried silently over him. Behind her, Nerfeti had gone back to the work on her desktop. Barry was still cold under Marty’s touch, but he had started to breathe more regularly, though he had so far not recovered consciousness yet.

  “It will be getting daylight in a couple of hours,” Nerfeti reminded her. “You should be getting back to where ever it is you’re staying. I would ask you to stay here, but considering all that has happened tonight, that might not be safe.”

  “What about him?” Marty looked down at Barry. “How will I know what to do for him?”

  “You have done everything you could do. Now all you can do is take him with you and wait and hope. A prayer might also help if you’re so inclined in that way.”

  “How will I know if I saved him?”

  Nerfeti smiled down at her. “I think you already did, my dear.” She got up from behind her desk and came to Marty. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be a mother to you all of these years,” she said.

  “I’m sorry, too,” Marty replied.

  “If you ever need anything in the future you know where to find me now.”

  Marty didn’t answer. She wasn’t sure how she felt about the woman. It would take time for her to develop feelings for her. But she still had one question to ask of her mother.

  “Why have I never been accepted as a vampire? Why did the others try to kill me tonight?”